Thread: NZFS ammo

I think that arms dealer chap in Hawera has got the CAC trademark now.

For the unfamiliar, CAC stands for Colonial Ammunition Company.

Import restrictions meant it was pretty much the only ammo we could get. 303, and then 270, 243 and 308 as I recall. The first imported ammo I remember was circa 1965, Norma 308 and Hertenburg .222 (spelling?). I thought I was untouchable using that imported .222 ammo.

Around about 1968 I used Norma 308 (having discovered that Hertenburg .222 ammo was not magic, and each lost deer was worth a weeks wages). The projectiles were silver (some sort of gliding metal) and they had yellow plastic tips which looked like they may have been actually round with the front half exposed. We thought they were the bee's-knees. Worked ok anyway. My 308 had one of the first Tasco 'scopes on it...they were Japanese and were ok...its on CraigC's .22 now...its well over 40 years old. It was born before he was.

Originally Posted by Tahr

The projectiles were silver (some sort of gliding metal) and they had yellow plastic tips which looked like they may have been actually round with the front half exposed. We thought they were the bee's-knees. Worked ok anyway.

@Tahr I think you are talking about the Norma plastic point projectiles:
Norma Plastic Point - Norma
They were still silver in the early 90's (copper-nickel) but seem to have changed to gilding metal.
We killed lots of things with them out of SLRs and my mates 30-06. They expanded quite fast in comparison with the common lead tip projectiles and tended to rip big holes in goats.
I think I still have a silver one somewhere.

I burned, my way threw a bit of that CAC NZFS ammo, when I first got a .270, prior to moving down south, the old man got several hundred, of one of his Ex forest service cullers for me, Seamed to work ok, but going from a vixen .222 to a .270, I wouldn't have know any better if it was a bit lack luster,

Used to come across piles of .303 brass when doing venison in South Westland. Nearly all the major basins from Paringa to Milford would have a wee pile somewhere.
Never disturbed them. Some of the piles were almost 50+
I know of one that has over 100 pieces in it.

I enjoyed looking over that country in a quiet moment and imagine huge mobs of Otago deer with several stags looking for supremacy.

Some of the game trails out of a lot of those catchments are over 100 yrs old and still well formed and used.

I have seen a mob of 40+ deer once thru that country but I would say it was once an everyday event for some cullers in the early days.


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Btw, has the round in the left got a split in the neck? Or is that a trick of the light?

Mega split in the neck

A gutless one, most 7mm08 rifles push a 140 grainer at 2880fps

A good friend of mine was a shooter in the Waioeka. He would bugger off the Aussie quite regularly and always left his rifle and ammo with me and at one stage I would have had at least 200 rounds of the NZFS 270 ammo.

Got one left now

I used .303 CAC brass I bought in 1977 and reloaded it a dozen times before the bases separated. Had to get the headspace fixed and a new batch of Norma brass which lasted about 20 years.
I worked briefly for the NZFS at Optoki in 1977 but .303 wasn't a NZFS caliber by then and I was given some in a green box, Speer perhaps, with hollow points. Mostly used my own reload ammo as I wasn't there long (good keen man and all that ...).
There was a silver lead point Norma 180gr .303 bullet but it was hard as - must of been designed for moose or crocodiles. 130 gr were the best on goats but after a few years were not available any more and I had to change to 150gr Norma. I got my last of those from Graham Henry after he wrote an article about the .303 for Rod and Rifle and shortly before he died. In about 2004 I saw a box of 130gr Norma projectile in a gun shop in Copenhagen but they wouldn't sell them to me without a permit.

Max Headroom....here you go,all you ever didnt want to know about the old NZFS ammo.

These are the Norma Dual Core plastic tip bullets (180gr) loaded in a 30 06. They were available as a factory load and were very good on game, the recovered projectiles are from deer.
Norma also did a bullet they called the Tri Clad which I used a lot in the early days in my first 270 (130 gr )these to were great on game.
When I was in the NZFS we were issued Sako 50 gr in 222 Rem and a little bit of Hertinburg. The Sako stuff was more reliable than the Hertinburg on deer but worked well on the goats which was our main target.